


Orange and Black

by darkavenue, projectml



Series: Project: Bug-A-Boo [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-09-15 13:53:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9237857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkavenue/pseuds/darkavenue, https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectml/pseuds/projectml
Summary: Adrien keeps Lila company on Halloween and she tricks him into pretending to be the real Chat Noir for the night.





	

Orange and black streamers were draped across the ceilings, cotton cobwebs clung to lockers, and paper skeletons were taped to walls. Lila couldn’t understand the appeal of Halloween. Seemingly everyone in her class was smitten by the idea of Chloe Bourgeois’ hyped up costume party.

“You can’t be Ladybug, bruh,” Nino told Alya. “Anyone wearing the same thing as Chloe gets turned away at the door.”

“You’ll paint my face after class, right?” Kim asked Juleka.

“XY is going to perform a song at the party,” Sabrina bragged to a chorus of squealing girls. “Chloe never throws a party without a celebrity appearance.”

Every student Lila passed in the hallway chattered away about plans for the night’s grand event. She scowled at the code on her locker.

“Hey, Lila,” a familiar voice called from behind her, just over her shoulder.

With a bit of effort, her grimace twisted into a smile before facing him. “Morning, Adrien. You excited to go to Chloe’s tonight too?”

The way the corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled would make her bitterness sound like the opposite.

Adrien was less skilled at hiding behind smiles. His didn’t quite reach his eyes when he said, “Not really. Have fun though, I heard the DJ is great.”

“Is it Nino?” She twitched one brow.

He laughed, and it made it into his eyes that time. “Yeah, it’s Nino. What’s your costume?”

Lila relaxed against the locker behind her. “I’ll give you a clue… I didn’t have to buy it.”

“Oh. Volpina.”

He was not as fascinated by her secret double life as Lila assumed he would be at first. When she saw that worn out book of his, she assumed he would be Alya-level excited about any mention of miraculous powers. It was enough to get his interest, at least. Even after Ladybug called her a liar in front of him, Adrien had chosen to believe Lila. She tried avoiding him like the plague after, thinking she would be too embarrassed to look him in the eye again. Adrien was very persistent in chasing down Lila to let her know that he thought Ladybug had gone too far.

He didn’t stop there. He swung by her locker to chat in the mornings. He sat with her at lunch sometimes, which annoyed Chloe and thus pleased Lila. He invited her to things without asking for any favors in return. But he never asked about Volpina. Lila was perfectly fine with this, since too many questions would make it a pain to maintain a convincing story.

“Daring, isn’t it? I’ll be so convincing, I could win a contest!”

After losing her powers, she spun a story about Ladybug throwing Volpina under the bus. To save her own miraculous, Ladybug had taken Volpina’s necklace and given it to Papillon. All Lila had left was the costume… Adrien had eaten it up and been considerate enough not to press the issue.

“Chloe actually holds a contest,” he said. “Winning second prize is a big deal.”

“Second place only means you were the first to lose.” Lila narrowed her eyes. “What, I’m not first place material?”

Adrien’s hands came up to wave around in defense. “No, I didn’t mean… It’s that Chloe gives herself first prize every year.”

“Oh. Classic.” She huffed a small laugh, then lowered her eyes in calculated coyness. “Do you want to go together?”

“I. Uh. Can’t.”

Her eyes snapped up to look into Adrien’s. He quickly diverted his gaze off to the side. The locker beside her was fascinating, apparently. She had a Volpina costume custom tailored for her pretty much only for Adrien’s benefit. No one else knew about her secret identity. Frustration swelled in Lila’s chest. “You mean I have to go alone?”

Adrien’s brows sank with guilt. Nice. “Kind of embarrassing, but my dad doesn’t let me do parties. Or costumes. He thinks they’re a waste of time.”

“Even when it’s for Chloe? She makes it seem like your dad adores her.”

As did everyone else.

Adrien’s hand came up to ruffle the back of his blonde hair. “Chloe gets… very creative… with how she interprets people’s opinion of her.”

Lila smiled, wondering if Adrien had a type. “Shame on her.”

-

She frowned without restraint in front of her mirror that night. Her facepaint didn’t look quite right. She should’ve roped Juleka into doing it. The ears were too tall, they slid off center any time she moved her head too fast. The tips of her hair were stiff as a board when they moved, thanks to all the colored hair spray she needed to layer over them to paint them white. The tail fell so flat.

Lila barely looked like Volpina.

It wasn’t fair. Ladybug’s costume hardly had any pieces to it, so Chloe’s suit was bound to look flawless. Lila _was_ truly Volpina. _It wasn’t fair_. If she could just have another chance… Maybe if she closed her eyes and focused on the negative emotions…

The sound of a crash at her roof startled her. Something large had fallen on her house. Strange noises in the night had a heightened impact on her fear when it was the 31st of October.

Heart thumping, Lila crept to her window sill on cautious tip-toes. She pressed her cheek against the glass, trying to get a glimpse of her roof. The warmth of her breath fogged the pane. She heard a rustle in the bushes beneath her window. It wasn’t on the roof anymore.

Lila jumped back from the window with a cry as someone shot out of her shrubs. Green eyes glowed behind a mask and gloved hands pressed their palms against her window.

In a heartbeat, her fear flipped to anger. “What are _you_ doing here?”

Chat Noir’s voice came muffled from outside, “Trick or treat?”

“Trick! I never wanted to see you or Ladybug again,” Lila snarled, stepping closer with daggers in her eyes. “Get the hell away from my house, how do you even know where I live?”

Chat Noir shrank beneath her piercing stare. “I—It’s not Chat Noir. This is a costume.”

Lila crossed her arms, still glaring, and he blurted, “I’m Adrien!”

Her jaw and her arms dropped. “No wa—Prove it!”

His hands flailed in desperate gesticulations as he spoke. “You asked me to go to the costume party with you today. I said my dad wouldn’t let me.”

Oh. She scrambled to unlatch her window and pushed it up. “God, sorry. It’s dark out there and your costume is— _really_ good?”

Everything, from the materials to the hairstyle, was so much more on point than Lila’s. It was scarily convincing. For a moment she wondered if she had truly been tricked by Chat Noir, and hesitated to pull her hands back from the window before it would be too late to slam it back down.

“Yeah, it cost a ton.” Green eyes flicked down to her necklace and he asked, “I thought you lost that?”

That was a story she’d told only Adrien, and one that Chat Noir would recall differently. She sighed and lowered her arms, leaving the window open for him.

“I had to buy a fake one for tonight,” she excused, dipping her head to climb out the window before he could see too many details of her costume in proper light. “You said your dad wouldn’t let you do Halloween or costumes, yet here you are. Doing both at the same time.”

Adrien held her hand and her elbow to help her leap over the shrubs without snagging her tights. “I told him I had an awful headache and went to bed early.”

“Ha.” Lila landed on her feet and tapped a fingertip to his nose. “You shouldn’t tell lies so big, Adrien.”

His mouth slid into a slant. “Are you going to lecture me on the importance of being earnest?”

“No. You shouldn’t do it because I don’t think you can pull them off.”

Adrien shrugged, far too demure to be a convincing Chat Noir beyond appearances. “I think you’d be surprised.”

-

The Halloween party was held at one of the ballrooms in Le Grand Paris, to no one’s surprise. As promised by Sabrina, the doors were guarded by a bulky pair of bouncers.

“Names?” said one, while the other looked at a list.

“Lila Rossi and Adrien Agreste.”

The second guard scratched their names off and informed the first that Adrien Agreste was VIP. The first dug into his pocket and pulled out a pink glowstick bracelet.

“Don’t I get one?” Lila squinted at the little trinket as Adrien slipped it on without a thought. “What does VIP mean?”

“Nothing, really, except he can go into the green room with XY,” said the guard.

“Probably because I’m somewhat of a celebrity,” Adrien said. “Don’t take it personally.”

He went past the guards, but Lila didn’t.

“You know, I was a child star too,” she told them. “I played baby Leia in Revenge of the Sith.”

By the time Adrien noticed he’d gone in alone, the guards were already praising her and gifting her a glowstick bracelet.

“Lila, that’s not true,” he reprimanded when she rejoined him.

“Doesn’t matter. Look! We match.” Lila held up her wrist with a wink and brushed past him.

Electric candles dangled from the ceiling and jack-o-lanterns lit their way past buffet tables adorned with cobwebbed candelabras. Someone in another Chat Noir costume leaned over bowls of candy, plucking out her favorites.

Lila didn’t need to see her face to recognize that brown and red hair. “Look at that, Alya had the same idea you did.”

At the sight of her, Adrien yelped and dove behind a tombstone.

“What the hell—”

“Oh, Lila!” Alya cut her off, unphased by catching Lila grumbling to a decoration. “Really cool costume! I think you’re the only Volpina here tonight.”

“I bet.”

Alya turned her eyes down to her own costume, clearly made of items scavenged from her closet.

“I threw this together at the last minute, since I couldn’t be Ladybug,” she said, ending the sentence with a roll of her eyes.

“You look great. In fact, I’m sure Chat Noir would be impressed.”

Alya laughed. “You should have brought him with you.”

“You know, I actually—I never arrive to a party without a celebrity.” Lila thumped her palm on the hollow plastic of Adrien’s hiding spot and put on a playful voice. “Rise from the grave, Chat Noir.”

Adrien, crouched behind it, looked up at her with eyes like saucers. “What are you doing?” he mouthed.

“Come on,” Lila said, voice firm. “I said I wanted you to meet my friend Alya.”

He clenched his eyes for a long moment, during which Lila shot a nervous glance toward a confused Alya. Then he sprang out in a burst of energy that Lila had never seen the likes of from Adrien, in the short time she’d known him.

“Oh!” Alya clapped a black glove over her lips. “Is that… someone in a really good costume? Hold on, I need a picture.”

While she fumbled through the pockets of her jacket for her cellphone, Adrien opened his mouth to speak.

“It’s really Chat Noir!” Lila burst out before he could get a word in. “I told you we were good friends, didn’t I?”

Adrien dragged an open palm over his face, but ultimately decided to shut his mouth. Alya looked him up and down, and Lila watched the suspicion on her face flip to glee in a split second.

“Yeah, but, wow! Hey, I’m Alya, we’ve met. Don’t play with me, is this really not a trick?”

His costume was really convincing. In the dark, with only sporadic flashes of party lights, you couldn’t tell the difference. If it sold Alya, it could sell anyone. She put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder, a silent plea to go along with this. If he wasn’t game for this or his acting sucked, she would claim it was a small Halloween prank. If he jumped on board and pulled it off… There was a lot of fun in store tonight.

“Nope, it’s a treat. We’d both recognize the Ladyblogger anywhere,” said Adrien.

It was a decent impression. Lila beamed.

Alya’s mouth formed nearly a perfect O. “Both, as in Ladybug? Is she here too?”

She struggled to maintain her smile and hold back an eyeroll at the same time. “Not yet, but she’ll swing by at some point, I’m sure.”

Alya squealed and hopped in place, bombarding Chat Noir with questions about his partner in crime prevention. Lila watched the two converse, growing more impressed with demure little Adrien playing an opposite part to his personality. He kept shooting Lila nervous glances, even as Alya pushed her back against his chest for a selfie, but otherwise nailed it. Perhaps they were more alike than she thought. She put a hand on his back as a small vote of confidence. And also to prove to Alya that Lila definitely told the truth about being on friendly terms with Chat Noir and Ladybug.

“Let’s get one with the three of us!” Alya suggested, although she had already bounced in between them with her phone up. Lila winked for the photo.

“Stay right here, I have to get one with Marinette,” said Alya before running off into the crowd.

“Look, you sent her into a frenzy,” Lila giggled.

Adrien turned on Lila, dropping the impish grin he’d been holding up for Alya’s sake and replacing it with a dead serious stare. “I thought you had a falling out with Ladybug.”

Everything about him had flipped. His entire posture changed, his mannerisms, his diction. Everything softened in the two seconds it took him to face her. It took her a moment to remember to be affronted.

“It was far worse than just a falling out!” Lila insisted.

But, oh, Adrien’s storyline didn’t match up with Alya’s.

She could fix that.

Lila put on a pitying tone. “Ladybug means too much to Alya. It would be hurtful for her to find out what Ladybug’s really like, so she doesn’t need to know about all that.”

Adrien appeared unaffected by her call for sympathy. “You should tell her you drifted apart from Ladybug instead of pretending to be friends.”

Lila’s hands balled into fists and distress spilled into her voice before she could control it. “That’s _not_ what happened. I’m not lying to Alya!”

He gave her a small smile that was sad and somehow knowing. “Are you afraid Alya will stop talking to you if you don’t have any connection to Ladybug?”

 _Yes_ , her insecurities whispered. Her jaw clenched. She couldn’t be friends with this guy.

“I need to go.”

“Where—” Lila pushed pasted Adrien before he could ask.

He went after her, swatting black and orange balloons out of his face on the way. “Lila!”

She dove into the crowd on the dance floor, hoping to get lost in the sea of masked faces. Bodies pushed against her on all sides, so tight that Lila had to brush shoulders with every witch, vampire, and zombie in her path. The closer she moved to the speakers, the longer it took to move just a few steps forward took what felt like ages. A hand closed around her wrist.

“What happened?” Adrien shouted in her ear, right behind her. His voice, even when raised, was barely audible over the DJ.

Lila spun and elbowed an innocent fairy in her attempts to wrench out of Adrien’s grip. She shouted right back, “Can you leave me alone? You have friends at this party, don’t you?”

“Did I do something wrong?” Adrien asked.

He didn’t yell it, so she only interpreted it through the movements of his mouth. His cat ears had began to slide off or something. They looked like they were drooping.

“Please stop talking to me! I don’t actually like you that way!” The flapper dancing next to Adrien overheard and whirled around with a dropped jaw. Great, now this was a scene. Lila played it like one. “I’m leading you on! So just—Leave me alone!”

She used the pretense to get herself out of there quick by shoving people out of the way. That drama was for Adrien to deal with. A rumor floating that she turned down the most handsome kid in school would be quite flattering for her. She shouldered her way out of the center of the dance floor, into the sparser edges. Lila looked over her shoulder to check if she’d been followed, then crashed against someone.

“ _Merda_ , sorry,” Lila said to whoever, still glancing behind.

No blonde hair and cat ears in sight. With a sigh, Lila turned her attention to the person she’d stumbled into. Someone wearing what looked like a onesie. They lifted the hood, decorated with a cutesy animal face, and a pair of wide blue eyes blinked up at Lila.

“Marinette! I love your—uh, mouse?—costume. You look cute enough to eat.”

“Hi, Lila, that’s not—”

Lila lifted her tail with one hand. “Because I’m a fox!”

Marinette straightened up with a small laugh. “Yeah, you look good too. But I’m a hamster.”

“Same thing.”

“Not really. You know, Alya’s looking for—”

Lila acted quick to cut that question off before it put her in charge of finding Adrien for Alya. “Do you know where the bathrooms are?”

Marinette frowned slightly and pointed behind her. “Um, over there. Did you really bring Chat Noir?”

“Of course. Alya of all people would know a fake when she sees one, wouldn’t she?”

Marinette’s frown grew. “What is he—Why did he come here with you?”

An arm slung around Lila’s shoulders without any warning. “She hasn’t told you? We’re old friends, her and I.”

Adrien pressed against Lila’s side with a physical presence so unlike his that she almost forgot it _wasn’t_ Chat Noir.

“Are you really?” Marinette raised one brow in a way that seemed suspicious. Had Adrien made Lila this paranoid?

“That’s an adorable costume, I’m tempted to eat—” Adrien began.

“Already said that.” Lila cut him off, then shrugged him away and took him by the arm. “Give us a moment, Marinette.”

With a friendly pat to the hamster’s shoulder, she pulled Adrien away into a closed off hallway with several doors leading to bathrooms on either side.

“Are you trying to embarrass me?” Lila hissed in his ear.

Her cheeks burned and her stomach froze with humiliation at the memory of the last time someone pretended to go along with her before turning on her. She’d made a mistake in trusting Adrien. She wanted so much for her classmates to find her fascinating for bringing Chat Noir tonight, but Lila’s control over the situation was slipping through her fingers. She used him and he went along with it. He could ruin her the moment he stopped wanting to pretend. Like Ladybug.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Adrien said, softly.

Lila’s eyes narrowed at him. “What, I’m supposed to trust you after you just found out that I’ve been leading you on?”

“I’m not even—It’s a huge _relief_ to know you don’t feel that way. I thought _I_ was leading _you_ on.”

Lila should have been relieved as well, but her vanity had other plans. It forced her voice to rise as she replied, “You didn’t even _like me_?”

“I do,” Adrien practically pleaded. “I’m trying really hard to be your friend and you don’t have to dangle any promises in front of me to make me want that.”

She didn’t know what to say. How did he know exactly the right thing to say? It was the one thing she wanted from most people. The reason she would tell them absolutely anything to make them adore her. Adrien had been there when Ladybug tore her apart. He was the only person who knew the desperate and ugly lengths Lila went through to make people want to be her friend. Something clicked into place. _How long had he known she’d been lying to him without saying a word about it_? Lila’s eyes cast downward and her mind reeled.

“Why would you want to then, with everything you know about me? You have to be lying,” she insisted.

“I’ve been friends with Chloe for too long to be bothered by someone who tries outlandishly hard to be admired by everyone and has a habit of… creatively interpreting… nearly everything about herself.”

“You’re friends with Chloe, but you don’t even like her.”

“Chloe’s an enigma and I don’t understand why she has to behave the way she does, but I don’t think she cares if anyone actually likes her. They all still come to any event she holds, and I guess that’s what fulfills her.”

That’s where Lila was nothing like Chloe. She didn’t have an ounce of Chloe’s confidence; the thing that assured Chloe she was the best person in the room even while everyone glared daggers at her, even when she humiliated herself. Lila’s crippling need to be not just liked, but adored by everyone would never allow such self-assurance. Maybe Adrien could see that fine line between them.

Still, the thought of a friendship where nothing was expected of her seemed alien and daunting. Lila made it into a negotiation for her own comfort. “Alright, Adrien. I’ll go along with your pretending as long as you go along with mine.”

Those wide green eyes blinked in surprise. “My pretending?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? You’re better than I thought, but not better than me, Chat Noir.”

His jaw dropped and he launched into a sputtering fit, failing to form any coherent excuses.

“It’s fine, I won’t tell anyone,” she promised, and how genuinely she meant it took her by surprise. She was used to making vows without any thought toward keeping them. “It makes more sense to hold this over your head for leverage, you know. Somehow that doesn’t even sound appealing right now.”

He knew she’d never been friends with Ladybug or Chat Noir. He knew Ladybug had never taken her powers. He knew she’d been akumatized. He knew _everything_ and he’d let Lila think she was getting away with it. It was the kindest thing someone had ever done for her.

Chat Noir’s hand came up to Lila’s head. With careful fingers, he fixed her drooping ears that had been jostled by the crowd. “It’s more fun to trust someone blindly. I do it all the time. I’m doing it right now.”

Lila exhaled a heavy huff through her nose. “You would trust me?”

“I think everyone’s worth trusting.” He shrugged one shoulder and gave her hair a soft pat before pulling his hand away. “You’re not the shadiest person who has surprised me. You should meet Nathalie sometime.”

Lila wondered, vaguely at the back of her mind, if she was the only person Adrien had shown both sides of himself to. Just as he had seen hers.

Lila smiled despite herself and hooked her arm around the crook of Adrien’s elbow. “Okay then, blondie, let’s treat our classmates to selfies with Chat Noir and Volpina.”

He let her steer him back into the grey mist of fog machines and thumping bass lines of the party. “We’re not even tricking them,” he said.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was produced as part of a Project Miraculous Ladybug effort. In addition, we would like to thank the following beta readers for making the fic possible: @Megatraven


End file.
